On The Shortness of Life and Urgency of Finding Your Role

“You ruin your life by tolerating it. At the end of the day you shouldbe excited to be alive. When you settle for anything less than whatyou innately desire, you destroy the possibility that lives inside ofyou, and in that way you cheat both yourself and the world of yourpotential. The next Michelangelo could be sitting behind a Macbookright now writing an invoice for paperclips, because it pays thebills, or because it is comfortable, or because he can tolerate it. Donot let this happen to you. Do not ruin your life this way. Life andwork, and life and love, are not irrespective of each other. They areintrinsically linked. We have to strive to do extraordinary work, wehave to strive to find extraordinary love. Only then will we tap intoan extraordinarily blissful life.” – Bianca Sparacino, How To Ruin YourLife (Without Even Noticing That You Are)

*

“There is one simple thing wrong with you – you think you have plentyof time … If you don’t think your life is going to last forever, whatare you waiting for ? Why the hesitation to change? You don’t havetime for this display, you fool. This, whatever you’re doing now, maybe your last act on earth. It may very well be your last battle. Thereis no power which could guarantee that you are going to live one moreminute.” – Carlos Castañeda

*

“A thousand half loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.” – Rumi

*

“I will not die an un-lived life, I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as a blossom, and that which came to me as a blossom, goes on as fruit.” – Dawn Markova

*

“You will lose everything. Your money, your power, your fame, your success, perhaps even your memories. Your looks will go. Loved ones will die. Your body will fall apart. Everything that seems permanent is impermanent and will be smashed. Experience will gradually, or not so gradually, strip away everything that it can strip away. Waking up means facing this reality with open eyes and no longer turning away. But right now, we stand on sacred and holy ground, for that which will be lost has not yet been lost, and realising this is the key to unspeakable joy. Whoever or whatever is in your life right now has not yet been taken away from you. This may sound trivial, obvious, like nothing, but really it is the key to everything, the why and how and wherefore of existence. Impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heartbreaking gratitude. Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar.” – Jeff Foster

*

“If you live long enough in a certain kind of way, with help, you can awaken to the idea that you were born to a certain task or purpose. This is an antique idea in most of the places I’ve lived. If you can manage that, let the feeling of being lucky soothe that other feeling of being haunted or mournful for not having woken to it until now.” – Stephen Jenkinson